Archaeologists are racing against time to protect the 1,000-year-old ship from completely rotting underground.

The 20-meter oak vessel

Gjellestad will be the first Viking ship unearthed in Norway in more than a century, according to Sveinung Rotevatn, Norway's minister of climate and environment. The excavation is to preserve the ship that tattoo clothing is being destroyed by fungi, to preserve information for the next generation, Live Science reported on May 15.

Scientists discovered

the ship at the famous Viking archaeological site in Gjellestad, Bergen, in the fall of 2018 using radar scanning the ground. The radar survey not only helped them find the ship, but also discovered a Viking-era graveyard.

The Gjellestad was buried in an ancient cemetery between the late 8th and early 10th centuries. The ship was most likely used for long-distance sea voyages, according to Sigrid Mannsaker Gundersen, an archaeologist at the Council. Viken County.

At the time

archaeologists were hesitant to excavate for fear that moist wood buried in the ground would be destroyed when exposed to air. However, after a test dig in 2019, they realized they needed to dig up the ship soon before it completely decayed.

"Only traces of the ship's plank line and the iron nails remain. The keel is the only part that is still solid wood," Gundersen said. However, the condition of the keel was also not good. Analysis showed that it was infected with fungi and was very brittle and brittle, possibly due to droughts.

Archaeologists hope to find some well-preserved wood. However, even if only a small amount of organic material remains, the excavation will yield valuable information about the ship and the ancient cemetery, Gundersen said. "We can learn a lot from the traces, from the objects, from the analysis of the soil or the remaining materials," he said.

Excavation is expected

to begin in June to avoid the effects of Covid-19. First, archaeologists will gather the topsoil and screen it for possible archaeological remains that were unwittingly excavated by farmers in previous centuries.

Next, the team will set up a tent to baseball jerseys custom protect the ship and then begin to remove the surrounding soil. At the same time, they also recorded data on the wood layers and 3D scanned the ship, said Christian Lochsen Rodsrud, an archaeologist at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. The remains of the vessel must be kept moist during excavation. After that, the wooden items and the rest of the ship will be preserved with polyethylene glycol, a chemical that helps the decayed wood become stronger.